Chapter III.

By evidence gathered from Scripture the unity of Father
and Son is proved, and firstly, a passage, taken from the Book of
Isaiah, is compared with others and expounded in such sort as to show
that in the Son there is no diversity from the Father’s nature,
save only as regards the flesh; whence it follows that the Godhead of
both Persons is One. This conclusion is confirmed by the
authority of Baruch.

20. Now the
oracles17051705Rom. iii. 2; Acts vii. 38. The Hebrew word translated
“burden” in the A.V.—e.g. Isa. xiii.
1—may be rendered “oracle.” The
“oracles” of the Hebrew prophets were of a different order
from those of Delphi or Lebadeia, which are rather comparable to the
“oracles” of such persons as the witch of Endor. of the prophets
bear witness what close unity holy Scripture declares to subsist
between the Father and the Son as regards their Godhead. For thus
saith the Lord of Sabaoth:17061706 Or “the Lord
of Hosts.” Cf. Isa. vi. 3, and the Te Deum, verse 5
(the Trisagion).
“Egypt hath laboured, and the commerce of the Ethiopians and
Sabeans: mighty men shall come over to thee, and shall be thy
servants, and in thy train shall they follow, bound in fetters, and
they shall fall down before thee, and to thee shall they make
supplication: for God is in thee, and there is no God beside
thee. For thou art God, and we knew it not, O God of
Israel.”17071707Isa. xlv. 14. St. Ambrose’s version
differs somewhat from the A.V.

21. Hear the voice of the prophet: “In
Thee,” he saith, “is God, and there is no God beside
Thee.” How agreeth this with the Arians’
teaching? They must deny either the Father’s or the
Son’s Divinity, unless they believe, once for all, unity of the
same Divinity.

22. “In Thee,” saith he,
“is God”—forasmuch as the Father is in the Son.
For it is written, “The Father, Who abideth in Me, Himself
speaketh,” and “The works that I do, He Himself also
doeth.”17081708 S. John xiv. 10. And yet
again we read that the Son is in the Father, saying, “I am in the
Father, and the Father in Me.”17091709 S. John xiv. 10. Let
the Arians, if they can, make away with this kinship17101710 Latin
proprietas, Greek οικειότης. in nature and unity in work.

23. There is, therefore, God in God, but not
two Gods; for it is written that there is one God,17111711Isa. xlv. 18; 1 Cor. viii. 4,
6. and there is Lord in Lord,17121712 or “Jehovah
in Jehovah.” but not two Lords, forasmuch as it is
likewise written: “Serve not two lords.”17131713 S. Matt. vi. 24. And the Law saith:
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord thy God is one
God;”17141714Deut. vi. 4. moreover, in the
same Testament it is written: “The Lord rained from the
Lord.”17151715Gen. xix. 24. The Lord,
it is said, sent rain “from the Lord.” So also you
may read in Genesis: “And God said,—and God
made,”17161716Gen. i. 6, 7. and, lower down,
“And God made man in the image of God;”17171717Gen. i. 26, 27. yet it was not two gods, but one God,
that made [man]. In the one place, then, as in the other, the
unity of operation and of name is maintained. For surely, when we
read “God of God,”17181718 Nicene Creed. we do not
speak of two Gods.

24. Again, you may read in the forty-fourth
psalm17191719Ps. xlv. in Bible and Prayer-book. how the prophet not only calls the Father
“God” but also proclaims the Son as God, saying:
“Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.”17201720Ps. xlv. 6. And further on: “God,
even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy
fellows.”17211721Ps. xlv. 7. This God
Who anoints, and God
205Who in
the flesh is anointed, is the Son of God. For what fellows in His
anointing hath Christ, except such as are in the flesh? You see,
then, that God is by God anointed, but being anointed in taking upon
Him the nature of mankind, He is proclaimed the Son of God; yet is the
principle of the Law not broken.

25. So again, when you read, “The Lord
rained from the Lord,” acknowledge the unity of Godhead, for
unity in operation doth not allow of more than one individual God, even
as the Lord Himself has shown, saying: “Believe Me, that I
am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or believe Me for the
very works’ sake.”17221722 S. John x. 38; xiv. 11. Here,
too, we see that unity of Godhead is signified by unity in
operation.

26. The Apostle, careful to prove that there
is one Godhead of both Father and Son, and one Lordship, lest we should
run into any error, whether of heathen or of Jewish ungodliness, showed
us the rule we ought to follow, saying: “One God, the
Father, from Whom are all things, and we in Him, and one Lord, Jesus
Christ, by Whom are all things, and we by Him.”172317231 Cor. viii. 6. The Greek runs:
“εἷε θε
ὁ ςὁπατήρ, ἐξ
οὗ τὰ πὰντα
καὶ ἡμεῖς
ςἰς
αὐτόν.”
Vulg.—Nobis tamen unus Deus Pater, ex quo omnia et nos in
illum. For just as, in calling Jesus
Christ “Lord,” he did not deny that the Father was Lord,
even so, in saying, “One God, the Father,” he did not deny
true Godhead to the Son, and thus he taught, not that there was more
than one God, but that the source of power was one, forasmuch as
Godhead consists in Lordship, and Lordship in Godhead, as it is
written: “Be ye sure that the Lord, He is God. It is
He that hath made us, and not we ourselves.”17241724Ps. c. 3.

27. “In thee,” therefore,
“is God,” by unity of nature, and “there is no God
beside Thee,” by reason of personal possession of the Substance,
without any reserve or difference.17251725 The original
is “non est Deus præter te—per proprietatem
substantiæ.” It must be remembered St. Ambrose was
a civil magistrate before he was made bishop. His mind would be
disposed therefore to regard things under a legal aspect.

28. Again, Scripture speaks, in the Book of
Jeremiah, of One God, and yet acknowledges both Father and Son.
Thus we read: “He is our God, and in comparison with Him
none other shall be accounted of. He hath discovered all the way
of teaching, and given it to Jacob, His servant, and to Israel, His
beloved. After these things He appeared upon earth, and conversed
with men.”

29. The prophet speaks of the Son, for it
was the Son Himself Who conversed with men, and this is what he
says: “He is our God, and in comparison with Him none other
shall be accounted of.” Why do we call Him in question, of
Whom so great a prophet saith that no other can be compared with
Him? What comparison of another can be made, when the
Godhead is One? This was the confession of a people set in the
midst of dangers; reverencing religion, and therefore unskilled in
strife of argument.

30. Come, Holy Spirit, and help Thy
prophets, in whom Thou art wont to dwell, in whom we believe.
Shall we believe the wise of this world, if we believe not the
prophets? But where is the wise man, where is the scribe?
When our peasant planted figs, he found that whereof the philosopher
knew nothing, for God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to
confound the strong.172617261 Cor. i. 27. The “peasant” is
Jeremiah. See Jer.
xxiv., but the prophet
is not there spoken of as planting figs. The quotation in
§ 28 is Baruch
iii. 36–38. Are we to
believe the Jews? for God was once known in Jewry. Nay, but they
deny that very thing, which is the foundation of our belief, seeing
that they know not the Father, who have denied the Son.17271727 “In Jewry
is God known.”—Ps.
lxxvi. 1. Yet they deny
the Son, and therefore know not the Father.—Matt. xi. 27. Cf. S. John i. 18.

1705Rom. iii. 2; Acts vii. 38. The Hebrew word translated
“burden” in the A.V.—e.g. Isa. xiii.
1—may be rendered “oracle.” The
“oracles” of the Hebrew prophets were of a different order
from those of Delphi or Lebadeia, which are rather comparable to the
“oracles” of such persons as the witch of Endor.

1725 The original
is “non est Deus præter te—per proprietatem
substantiæ.” It must be remembered St. Ambrose was
a civil magistrate before he was made bishop. His mind would be
disposed therefore to regard things under a legal aspect.